Writing notes: ADoF chapter 29 ‘Nest’

This is the first chance to spend a bit of time with Rose Furey, although we don’t discover much about her yet. This chapter and the next are primarily character pieces, giving Kay a bit of breathing room before we get back into the action.

An interesting aspect to Arc 3 is that we get to experience Future Earth from the point of view of Kay, which means having quite an outsider perspective on the society and its technology. Until now we’ve only really known about the Big Tech – the dimension turbine – but here we start to glimpse details such as the self-driving container truck. It’s an interesting challenge, having to introduce a futuristic science fiction world based on our own in addition – or in parallel – to the more fantastical world that the story has been primarily concerned with so far. (more…)

On Wattpad and momentum

I joined Wattpad a couple of years ago – I forget exactly when – and published my first story on July 14th 2014. That story has had 13 ‘reads’. I didn’t start using Wattpad properly until May 2015, when I started writing and publishing A Day of Faces, my on-going weird sci-fi serial.

In September I tentatively took part in something called the Story Fair, run via Facebook by a handful of far more established Wattpad authors (who have tens of thousands of readers between them). That event brought in a whole bunch of extra readers and also unexpectedly got me involved with the upcoming Wattpad Block Party, which is going to happen in February. You can find out about the event here. (more…)

Writing notes: ADoF chapter 28 ‘Interlude #4’

Aha! All is revealed. Or, at least, what happened to Cal.

The funny thing about the Interlude chapters is that they were never part of the original plan. I added Interlude #1 into the first story arc as a way to add some additional intrigue to the growing sense of conspiracy, and to unsettle readers. Interludes 2 and 3 then served to established Wynton Simons as a genuine character, giving the Arc 2 finale more emotional heft than if he’d just been Generic Faceless Might-Be-A-Bad-Guy. (more…)

Writing notes: ADoF chapter 27 ‘Flight’

And right here we have the setup for the rest of Arc 3. The previous two chapters were more about capping Arc 2, while ‘Flight’ sets us off in a new direction.

One thing I enjoyed about this one was juxtaposing the low key mundanity of a rustic farmhouse breakfast table with talk of rebellion. The Lynt family and their associates I was imagining in the vein of resistance fighters in 1940s France, operating behind a veil of normality. (more…)

I’ve been doing other things in 2015

A glance down this blog would lead to the reasonable conclusion that all I’ve been doing this year is writing A Day of Faces. I should probably try to be rather more varied in my blog output.

So, other things.

At work FXHOME just released HitFilm 4 Pro. It’s a great NLE/VFX product and it also has a snazzy new website to accompany it. In terms of copywriting I’m massively proud of the new site and feel like it’s my best work to date. Do check it out over at hitfilm.com. I’ll be writing a full-on copy and design deconstruction blog at some point in the near future. (more…)